Appreciating Great Staff Members

I recently reached my 39th birthday…again! What made this birthday especially memorable is that our corporate office staff made a big celebration out of it. They came in early, decorated the place with all kinds of balloons and streamers, and surprised me when I arrived that morning. Later we enjoyed delicious food and the festive music of a mariachi band. It was a great day.

All of this caused me to reflect on what a blessing it is to have staff members that are not only good at their jobs but get along with each other, as well as with the management team. In our quarter century of business – growing and expanding – there were times when this was not always the case. It happens in every business – yours, too I’m sure – but eventually some people leave, and new ones join the staff. And hopefully, as in our case, you end up with a staff that you wouldn’t trade for the world.

A great staff doesn’t just happen, however. Each one of our departments in our irrigation stores as well as our nurseries, have exceptional staff members. The excellent jobs they do are a big part of the reason why we are growing. There’s a lot of training, counseling, and setting of realistic goals for each department in their development process. And as we do with our customers…we treat all our staff members like family. If you don’t have a good training program in place for your staff…you’d better start one. You will redeem its cost a hundredfold.

It is also important to be open to your staff’s wants and needs. That’s what happened recently at our corporate headquarters, as we expanded into the building next door. Now we have a dedicated lunchroom, larger offices, and big smiles on the faces of our corporate staff who were a little cramped in our original offices. Companies like ours are all about storage space. The more you have, the more you can sell. But in your growing, don’t forget the space and benefits for the office personnel that keep your business running smoothly.

I can’t take credit for organizing and managing such a sharp office staff, because all that credit goes to our Office Manager Edaena Pano, who has been with the company from the beginning. Thanks, Eda, for all that you do.

Another key part of our Landscape Warehouse staff – and one of the reasons why we’ve modernized some procedures and continue to improve our communications, is because of the addition of my son Joe to the management team. He came on board a couple of years ago after graduating with a degree in business from UC Riverside. His fresh ideas, new skills, and technology savvy have played a big part in our growth and current success. And Joe has assumed some of my responsibilities which frees me up to take on new challenges.

So, I was prompted by a birthday celebration to realize how fortunate I am to have such great staff members on our team. Hopefully – as the leader of your company – you won’t wait until your next birthday to do the same.

– José Robles, owner, Landscape Warehouse